Defensive Driving: Road Rage Edition
Oct. 11th, 2014 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI guess all defensive driving instructors have their own strengths and missions. Today's most interesting material was on dealing with annoying things that happen while you're driving.
Catty-wampus parking
My instructor liked to tell stories. For example: Imagine you're in a very full parking lot. Finally you find a space. Sort of. One of the adjacent cars is parked crooked. You can still squeeze in by parking crooked yourself. You think about keying that guy's car. But you decide you're above that and don't do it.
Later, that guy leaves. A new person finds the space, but notes that you are parked crooked. They can just fit in, but they have to park crooked to do so. They think about keying your car. But then they decide they are above all that and don't do it.
This can go on all day long.
Lesson: You never know if that person who's parked crazy is the first person who parked like that.
Slow drivers
Sometimes someone's driving really amazingly slowly. As you pass, you look inside and see that it's some super old person.
But think about it. Do you really want all the ninety-five-year-olds driving fast? Maybe not.
And sometimes after pretty traumatic accidents, the people in them are afraid to drive fast for a while.
Lesson: Just let people drive the speed they are comfortable at.
Teaching people a lesson
You may tell yourself that when you shoot someone the bird or otherwise communicate negatively with a driver that you are teaching them a lesson and making the roads safer for everyone.
But you can't teach people a lesson on the road. Face it, you're really doing that because it feels good. It's actually safer to just let it go.
Shockingly bad behavior
Our expectations tend to be too high when we're driving. It will never be the case that everyone will use their blinkers, everyone will drive your idea of the ideal speed, no one will cut anyone off, etc.
Better to just accept that annoying things will happen. There's always another idiot. When you start feeling emotional, ask yourself why you're still shocked. It really should not be a big surprise.
When someone does cut you off, you might even think to yourself, "There you are. I was wondering where you were."
Teaching yourself a lesson
If you feel a rush when you cut someone off, there might be something wrong with you.
If you get cut off on a regular basis, or someone flips you the bird on a regular basis, you might be doing something wrong, or at least something rude. "Once every six months is a healthy amount." Heh. If it's happening more often than that, it might be something about you.
Our instructor actually avoids doing some things that he personally does not feel are wrong just because it's been made clear to him that other people don't like it and it's better to get along on the road. For example, when getting on the freeway and traffic is slow, he likes to wait until the last possible second to merge. But people in the slow lane feel he is taking unfair advantage of them, so now he merges much sooner than that.
Catty-wampus parking
My instructor liked to tell stories. For example: Imagine you're in a very full parking lot. Finally you find a space. Sort of. One of the adjacent cars is parked crooked. You can still squeeze in by parking crooked yourself. You think about keying that guy's car. But you decide you're above that and don't do it.
Later, that guy leaves. A new person finds the space, but notes that you are parked crooked. They can just fit in, but they have to park crooked to do so. They think about keying your car. But then they decide they are above all that and don't do it.
This can go on all day long.
Lesson: You never know if that person who's parked crazy is the first person who parked like that.
Slow drivers
Sometimes someone's driving really amazingly slowly. As you pass, you look inside and see that it's some super old person.
But think about it. Do you really want all the ninety-five-year-olds driving fast? Maybe not.
And sometimes after pretty traumatic accidents, the people in them are afraid to drive fast for a while.
Lesson: Just let people drive the speed they are comfortable at.
Teaching people a lesson
You may tell yourself that when you shoot someone the bird or otherwise communicate negatively with a driver that you are teaching them a lesson and making the roads safer for everyone.
But you can't teach people a lesson on the road. Face it, you're really doing that because it feels good. It's actually safer to just let it go.
Shockingly bad behavior
Our expectations tend to be too high when we're driving. It will never be the case that everyone will use their blinkers, everyone will drive your idea of the ideal speed, no one will cut anyone off, etc.
Better to just accept that annoying things will happen. There's always another idiot. When you start feeling emotional, ask yourself why you're still shocked. It really should not be a big surprise.
When someone does cut you off, you might even think to yourself, "There you are. I was wondering where you were."
Teaching yourself a lesson
If you feel a rush when you cut someone off, there might be something wrong with you.
If you get cut off on a regular basis, or someone flips you the bird on a regular basis, you might be doing something wrong, or at least something rude. "Once every six months is a healthy amount." Heh. If it's happening more often than that, it might be something about you.
Our instructor actually avoids doing some things that he personally does not feel are wrong just because it's been made clear to him that other people don't like it and it's better to get along on the road. For example, when getting on the freeway and traffic is slow, he likes to wait until the last possible second to merge. But people in the slow lane feel he is taking unfair advantage of them, so now he merges much sooner than that.
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no subject
on 2014-10-13 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
on 2014-11-04 05:32 pm (UTC)I don't think I have any lessons I should be learning like this. Normally when people are mad at me it's because I started to change lanes into them and of course that is something I would only do accidentally.
no subject
on 2014-11-03 04:59 am (UTC)Very good lessons - thanks for sharing them! I don't often give people the bird or anything, but I *do* admit to being surprised at bad behavior by other drivers and to doing some things myself that cause reactions from others (slightly more than once every six months :-). So I will reread your post from time to time and try to be better!
no subject
on 2014-11-04 05:28 pm (UTC)Surprised at bad behavior is a big problem for me! And I also think about revenge too much (just fantasize about doing it without actually planning on or trying to do it).